Together in Paris
by dracosnumber1girl
Summary: Caroline has no idea why she's in the Original Mansion, waiting for Klaus to get back from whatever stupid errand he's on. Well, she does, but she just doesn't want to admit it. Klaroline fluffy one-shot.


She walked around the table, pausing to run her fingers across the carvings along the sides. She heard a slight _whoosh_ and turned around abruptly, remembering that she wasn't actually supposed to be there. She shook her head and continued walking the living room of the Mikaelson mansion. Admiring the large landscape on the wall, she let out a sigh, thinking, _"Why can't I just let it go? Why do I have to feel this…obligation to him?"_ Caroline had agonized over her decision to make an appearance at the home of Klaus and Rebekah, but eventually decided that it was worth it. What either of those "its" were, she didn't really know. She did, however, know that, for some reason, she just had to be there. Looking around the room, her eyes kept returning to the landscape on the north wall. She couldn't decipher what landscape had been painted, but as she drew closer to the painting, she noticed two small, black vertical lines near the horizon. She continued to move closer and discovered…

"Hello, love," she heard in that annoyingly enviable accent of his.

"Huh!" Her breath caught as she whipped around. "I didn't…I mean, I…"

He smirked. "You're always welcome, Caroline. Please, keep staring. I quite enjoy watching you try to figure this piece out."

"Hmph," she let out as she crossed her arms, raising her eyebrow. "Well. I was trying to figure out who those two crazy people in the background are. The landscape is a storm and there's two people running around in it! Makes absolutely no sense."

"No sense at all?" Klaus remarked, a slight frown marring his features. "I thought they made the painting more accessible. Seems even the artist isn't correct if Caroline Forbes is examining something."

"You did this?" She asked, surprised. Caroline had only ever seen his sketches at that horrific ball. Now she was aghast at the beauty of the painting.

"Yes," Klaus said. "Are you surprised? I did mention that I have a landscape hanging in the Hermitage, did I not?"

"Well, you did, but…" She couldn't stop being awed by what she was seeing.

Silence ensued after she failed to articulate her thoughts on his work. The painting kept drawing her eye. She couldn't stop looking at it. She imagined his hands working for hours on getting the brush strokes and colors the exact way he wanted them. It was magical to her.

"Why are you here?" Klaus suddenly whispered, interrupting Caroline's thoughts. "Why have you been wandering around my home for the better part of an hour? Were you waiting for me to return? Rebekah said even she couldn't get rid of you."

"I…" Caroline didn't know what to tell him. Could she tell him the truth? Was she ready? Was _he_? She didn't even know what she felt; she didn't know if these feelings made any sense. She looked down at folded hands and said, "Would you mind sitting? I don't know…I just…"

He immediately acquiesced, taking her arm and leading her over to the couch. She could only imagine what was going through his head. He'd put on his 'I'm a hybrid and the world can't touch me' stern face and she had no way to read him.

"Do your worst, love," he murmured as he sprawled lazily on the couch.

She took a deep breath. "I've never really wanted to go to Tokyo," she started. His brow furrowed. "It seems too…dirty. Maybe once I'm more used to travelling. I don't know. And, Rome? Won't I like, burn up if I set foot in any of those churches? Plus, I feel like going to Italy is all about the food and wine, and I've never seen you have any real food, though the wine would be interesting…"

"Wait, _we_? Caroline…" Klaus said, shocked, until Caroline cut him off.

"Don't interrupt me. Now Paris, that's more like it. I've always wanted to see the Eiffel Tower and eat at that ridiculous McDonald's at the Louvre. And maybe, instead of Tokyo, we can go to St. Petersburg and see your painting at the Hermitage and then go see the ballet, and dance around the Winter Palace singing about dancing bears and…"

"Stop!" Klaus shouted. Her heart was beating eight hundred miles per hour as he stared at her, grabbing her hand. "What are you saying? It's been _months_ since I… and now… What am I supposed to say to you?" She couldn't believe she'd basically made the Original Hybrid speechless. At least she won that particular battle.

"I'm saying I want to see those places. The ones you promised me. But I want…I don't want you to get too excited. I have no idea what the heck I'm feeling, and I can't promise that I'll be what you want and, hmph!" He cut her off with the most searing kiss she'd ever had. His hands glued her head to his, grasping at her hair, then moving down her back to her waist. She quickly brought her arms around him, pressing him closer to her.

He suddenly broke off the kiss. "Are you sure that you won't be exactly what I want?" He smiled, not smirked, but genuinely smiled.

She laughed, simply because she couldn't do anything else. She felt lightheaded, yet her body was burning everywhere, like she had just been struck by lightning. "Maybe it won't take as long as I thought," she said as she drew him back for a soft kiss.

-O-

The wind blew in her hair as she looked out across the city of Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower for the last time on their visit. It had been a month of bliss since they'd left Mystic Falls. Well, almost. There were still hybrids, still a difficulty with her insistence that she not 'eat and erase' like he wanted her to, and still no idea where their relationship actually stood; but they had also wandered through the Louvre together, jumped to the top of the Arc du Triomphe, and watched the sunrise over the city when they were returning from dancing the night away in his favorite little jazz club just outside the city. She really couldn't complain.

"Done yet, love?" He muttered in her ear as he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind.

"Just one more minute?" She asked, batting her eyelashes at him. It seemed to be something even a thousand year old vampire couldn't resist.

"Yes. Just one more." He seemed nervous, she noticed. They were getting on the plane back to Mystic Falls in the morning and, well, that was going to be a whole other can of worms when her mother finally got her hands on Klaus. Instead of just cleaning her gun in front of him, she'd probably fire off a few wooden warning shots that happened to 'accidently' graze him in very sensitive places. And God, her friends. They had been texting her day and night telling her what a mistake she was making. Thank God for Stefan and his insistence that people be allowed to 'make their own mistakes', because without his insistence, she didn't think she would have been able to get Elena and Bonnie off her back. But she was so utterly happy, that those comments didn't even register as she stared over the city one last time.

Turning around, she noticed that Klaus was looking directly into her eyes, something he hardly ever did outside of the…ahem…more…ah…_intimate_ moments of their relationship. "What's going on?" she asked, staring right back.

He swallowed. "I…There's something you need to know before we return. Remember those two days that I had to 'set up' something for my hybrids?" She nodded, frowning at the memory. "Well…I may have taken a plane back to Mystic Falls in order to do something for you." She brightened immediately.

"What more could you possibly do for me? This has been so perfect, I…"

"Don't interrupt me, love. I don't know if I'll get this out. I wanted to talk to someone, and get their permission to do something. You see, back in my day, a _billion_ years ago, according to you, courtship was very different. A woman was a treasure and had to be treated as such, including asking her family for permission to take her places. Since we failed to ask permission for this little venture, I returned to ask about our next." He looked sheepish as he rubbed the back of his neck. She'd never seen him look this nervous. Caroline may have seen his more carefree side during their time in Paris, but he was always perfectly composed. Klaus help out an envelope saying, "Open it."

She ripped open the gift, gasping. It was two tickets, not for Dulles in D.C., but for Moscow. They were dated the next day. She smiled, grabbing him and kissing him senseless. "Thank you."

He whispered, "There's one more thing. Doesn't the envelope seem a little heavy still?"

She looked perplexed, and then pulled out a piece of jewelry. "You remembered! I can't believe it, really?"

It was a necklace. A replica of one a young princess wore as she sang of dancing bears and memories in a cold, empty palace. It said, "Together in Paris," a phrase which held new meaning for the young woman who now owned it.

"I can't believe you," she said, giggling. "You're a hopeless romantic…Dmitry."

"Anastasia…" he said as he led her down the Eiffel Tower and into the sunset as they prepared for their next great adventure.


End file.
